Four US Police Officers Grippingly Describe January 6 Attack on US Capitol

Four U.S. police officers told a congressional investigating committee in tearful, gripping detail on Tuesday how an angry mob of supporters of then-President Donald Trump rampaged into the U.S. Capitol last January 6 in a futile attempt to block certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in last November’s presidential election.

The officers – two on the U.S. Capitol Police force and two with the Washington city police department -- said they feared for their lives as about 800 rioters stormed past outmanned law enforcement authorities, taunted them with racial and political epithets, fought hand-to-hand with police, sprayed chemical irritants at them and grabbed for their shields and sidearms. Their testimony came on the first day of public hearings on the deadly mayhem more than six months ago, the worst attack in more than two centuries on the U.S. Capitol, often seen as the symbol of U.S. democracy. Seven Democratic members of the House of Representatives and two Republican lawmakers on a select committee listened raptly to the testimony– along with a national television audience.  During the three and a half hour hearing, U.S. Capitol Police officer Aquilino Gonell testified, “The rioters called me a 'traitor,' a 'disgrace,' and shouted that I (an Army veteran and police officer) should be 'executed.'”